Skeleton Found in Cambridge Home

Cambridge Street, located near the busy Lechmere T-station, is home to quaint row houses and small businesses, but behind the brown wooden door of a 150-year-old house lay a newly discovered skeleton, buried with a century-old gun.

Construction workers who were building a back porch between the house, which is owned by Rosalie Foster, and an adjacent building, discovered the bones and gun on Thursday, according to the Boston Herald.

Nick Stamos, the owner of Fresh Start Contracting, told the Herald that his workers discovered the bones below the concrete foundations of a shed that once sat behind the home.

“At that point I thought the best thing to do was to call the police,” Stamos said.

Anjali Lohani ’08, a former Crimson editor who lives in the adjacent building, recalled returning home on an otherwise normal Thursday evening.

“My roommates and I weren’t even aware that anything had happened until our landlord called us,” Lohani said. “We were told not to go into the backyard, because it was a crime scene.”

Yesterday, yellow police tape was draped along a tall wooden fence below the connecting porch.

The construction workers, who began work last Wednesday, have not returned to the site since the discovery. “I’m not sure when construction will resume,” Lohani said.

Foster told the Associated Press that the discovery was “unbelievable at first, and then it gets a little shocky and then you go ‘Wow, I got a body!’”

She could not be reached by The Crimson for further comment.

Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello told the AP that forensic examinations are expected to reveal the age and gender of the skeletal remains, which appears to be about 100 years old.

Though investigations are still underway, The Boston Globe reported on Friday that police believe the skeletal remains may not be from a human, as was initially thought.

Foster has been told by police that she can keep the ancient gun because the object was discovered on her property.

—Staff writer Manning Ding can be reached at ding3@fas.harvard.edu.